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Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas had a great day at Road America, winning the Grand-Am race. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Pruett gets a win handed to him at Road America

June 22, 2012

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Scott Pruett had waited nine races and the entire Grand-Am Rolex Series to finally collect another victory. It didn't much matter that one was handed to him on Saturday at Road America.

Pruett and co-driver Memo Rojas, the defending Daytona Prototype series champions, assumed the lead under caution with less than 20 minutes left on Saturday when leader Ricky Taylor crashed while leading the field, then bore off in the No. 01 BMW Riley for the overall victory.

“Even though we haven't been to victory lane, it certainly hasn't taken any fight out of us,” said Pruett, who has won five times at Road America in different types of cars.

The team of Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal captured the GT class (seventh overall) in the No. 69 Ferrari 458.

While Pruett and Rojas had been winless through six events in 2012, they'd hardly struggled, at least by rank and file standards. The Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Daytona Prototype drivers entered as points leaders. They had finished third, and second in their previous two events. They have won the last two Grand Am races at Road America.

Riley entries claimed all three podium spots in DP.

Runner-up Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio were second overall in the No. 8 Ford Riley.

Pruett said he was hoping for a long green-flag run to the finish to bolster his hopes of catching Taylor in the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette, but a possible broken part might have done the job. Pruett said Taylor's car veered wildly and into a fence in turn five, leading him to believe a rear suspension part broke.

Taylor led with about 12 minutes remaining in the two hour event when he somehow lost control of his car while apparently scrubbing his tires under caution. Only an in-car camera caught the moment, after which he slammed his hands and against the steering wheel before working his long way back around the 4-mile course. His car struggled to turn down onto pit road as he entered for a damage assessment. Taylor and Max Angelelli finished 20th.

From then on, Dalziel tried fruitlessly to keep the Ganassi team from increasing its DP standings lead to five points.